1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to logistics and supply chain management. Specifically, the invention relates to the presentation of data in a supply chain management application user interface.
2. Background
Logistics often involves the transportation of goods and services from a source location to a destination location. The transportation services for this movement of goods and services are provided by transportation services providers (e.g., DHL or UPS), a manufacturer, retailer, distributor or similar entity. The transportation of goods and services is often employed in the process of supply chain management.
A supply chain is a network of retailers, distributors, transportation service providers, warehouses, and suppliers that take part in the production, delivery and sale of a product or service. Supply chain management is the process of coordinating the movement of the product, information related to the product and money among the constituent parts of a supply chain. Supply chain management also integrates and manages key processes along the supply chain. Supply chain management strategies often involve the use of software to project and fulfill demand and improve production levels.
These software applications present the supply chain management data in document driven user interfaces. The document driven user interfaces often display data in a flat table format. This type of display of data is utilized because it is simple to implement, because it matches the database representation of the data. However, this type of display of data is difficult for a user to understand. The user must have a deep understanding or extensive experience with the user interface or the data to understand the presentation of large and complex data sets.
If hierarchy data is available that represents the relationships between data, this hierarchy data is displayed in separate tables through the same user interface. Each hierarchy table displays information in a flat format. The flat presentation of hierarchy data does not assist a user in the process of understanding the data or relationships between sets of data.